Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2020 | 12(14): 17049–17056
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6008.12.14.17049-17056
#6008 | Received 17 April 2020 | Final
received 13 October 2020 | Finally accepted 16 October 2020
Cirsium wallichii
DC.
(Asteraceae): a key nectar source of butterflies
Bitupan Boruah 1 , Amit Kumar
2 & Abhijit Das 3
1,2,3 Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248002, India.
1 bitupan.kaz@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 amit@wii.gov.in, 3 abhijit@wii.gov.in
Editor: A.J. Solomon Raju, Andhra
University, Visakhapatnam, India. Date of publication:
26 October 2020 (online & print)
Citation: Boruah, B., A. Kumar & A.
Das (2020). Cirsium wallichii DC. (Asteraceae): a key nectar
source of butterflies. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(14): 17049–17056. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6008.12.14.17049-17056
Copyright: © Boruah et al. 2020. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank Uttarakhand Forest
Department for necessary field support and permission to conduct the study. We
are also thankful to Mussoorie Forest Division for
their support specially Dr. Shipra Sharma, Range
Forest Officer and Forest staff of Benog Wildlife
Sanctuary for helping WII team during the field work. We would like to
acknowledge Director and Dean, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun for
institutional support. Deb S. Goswami and Swati Nawani are also acknowledged for their help during the
field work.
In general, both larvae and adult butterflies depend
on plant resources (Kitahara et al. 2008; Nimbalkar et al. 2011).
Adult butterflies forage on a wide variety of plant species for floral
nectar (Courtney 1986; Raju et al. 2004).
Butterflies, however, do not collect nectar extensively from all the
available flowers (Kunte 2000). Thus, the diversity of the butterfly
community of a region is associated with the availability of host plants
(Murphy & Wilcox 1986; Kitahara et al.
2008). Also, the diversity and abundance
of pollinators such as butterflies are crucial
for the reproductive success of flowering plants (Mukherjee et al. 2015). Several wild plants considered as weeds serve
as important nectar sources for butterflies (Mukherjee et al. 2015; Kapkoti et al. 2016).
One such wild weed, Cirsium Mill.
(Thistle) of the family Asteraceae has been well recognized as a nectar
source of butterflies (Robertson 1928; Tooker et al.
2002; Kapkoti et al. 2016). Cirsium is a
speciose genus of Asteraceae, with about 200 species distributed in Europe,
Asia, North & Central America, and northern Africa (Mabberley
2008; Sahli et al. 2017). Among the species of this genus known from
India, Cirsium wallichii
DC. has been extensively used as a traditional medicinal plant in the Himalaya
(Uniyal et al. 2011).
Interestingly, owing to a lack of information on Cirsium
wallichii DC. as a nectar source of butterflies,
the current communication aims to address the value of Wallichii’s
Thistle not only as a weed, but also as a nectar source of butterflies.
The present study was conducted from May to August,
2019 in Benog Wildlife Sanctuary (30.467°N &
78.027°E), Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India. The sanctuary is characterized by Banj Oak Quercus leucotrichophora
forests, Chirpine Pinus roxburghii
forests and grasslands (Champion & Seth 1968) which harbour
at least 335 species of vascular plants (Kumar et al. 2012). The survey was done between 08.00h and 11.00h
to record the butterfly species visiting Cirsium
wallichii.
We photographed representatives of each butterfly species from the
area. Based on the photographs,
identification of the species was carried out using Evans (1932) and Kehimkar (2016).
Cirsium wallichii grows along open and modified stream habitats in the
sanctuary as well as near human settlements and agricultural lands at the
peripheral area (Image 1A). Leaves are
stalkless and pinnately lobed with long spines at the margin. The plant blooms from May–July. Capitula are many-flowered, solitary or
clustered and borne on leafless stalks.
They are 2–3.4cm across, homogamous, bisexual, discoid, and clustered in
corymbose racemes (Image 1B). Florets
are about 2cm long, pale-white, corolla tube long, limb five-toothed and pappus
hair pale-white. Outer involucre bracts
are lanceolate with spreading erect or recurved spines; inner bracts dilated,
lanceolate-ovate and incurved near the apex (Image 1C).
During recent field explorations in the Benog Wildlife Sanctuary, a total of 62 species and
sub-species of butterflies belonging to 45 genera and five families foraging on
Cirsium wallichii
for nectar were documented (Table 1 and Images 2–5). The species assemblage includes Nymphalidae (35.5%), Hesperiidae
(22.6%), Lycaenidae (17.7%), Pieridae
(16.1%) and Papilionidae (9.7%). Among the recorded butterflies, five species
such as Aporia agathon,
Gonepteryx rhamni, Celaenorrhinus munda,
Vanessa cardui, and Vanessa indica frequently visited the flowers for nectar while Pontia daplidice
and Callerebia nirmala
were recorded only once visiting the flowers. We also observed Vanessa cardui (Nymphalidae) utilizing
C. wallichii as a larval host
plant. During the study period, C.
wallichii was the only species that
attracted diverse butterfly species.
Cirsium has been
studied in terms of nectar source by several workers such as Robertson (1928)
who reported 14 species of Lepidoptera foraging on C. vulgare,
eight species on C. altissimum and nine
species each on C. discolor and C. pumilum. Thirty-three pollinators including 15 species
of butterflies visiting C. verutum have
been reported from the western Himalaya (Kapkoti et
al. 2016). Although, it is used as a
medicinal plant by the tribal people of the Himalaya (Uniyal
et al. 2011), C. wallichii has never
been reported as an important forage.
The present communication highlights the importance of C. wallichii as a key nectar source for a large
number of butterfly species though the plant is considered as a weed. The visits of several species of butterflies
to C. wallichii could be attributed to
the hexose-rich sugar and strong amino acid content in the florets. This characteristic of the plants belonging
to the family Asteraceae has been reported by Baker & Baker (1983). As
observed on Wendlandia tinctoria
(Raju et al. 2011), clustered flowering of C. wallichii
also have benefited the butterflies thus, reducing searching time. Thistle in the Himalaya such as C. verutum has been found as an important forage (Kapkoti et al. 2016) and it proves to be an important resource
for butterflies in the Benog Wildlife Sanctuary, Mussoorie. This
study indicates that there is a need for further studies to understand the role
of C. wallichii in sustaining butterfly
diversity at landscape level during summer season.
Table 1. List of butterfly
species foraging on Cirsium wallichii
|
|
Scientific name |
Common name |
|
A. |
Family: Papilionidae |
|
|
1. |
Graphium sarpedon (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Common Bluebottle |
|
2. |
Graphium cloanthus (Westwood, 1841) |
Glassy Bluebottle |
|
3. |
Graphium agamemnon (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Tailed Jay |
|
4. |
Papilio protenor Cramer, [1775] |
Spangle |
|
5. |
Papilio bianor Cramer, [1777] |
Common Peacock |
|
6. |
Papilio polytes Linnaeus, 1758 |
Common Mormon |
|
B. |
Family: Pieridae |
|
|
7. |
Aporia agathon caphusa (Moore,
1872) |
Garhwal Great Blackvein |
|
8. |
Aporia agathon agathon (Gray, 1831) |
Nepalese Great Blackvein |
|
9. |
Aporia leucodice (Eversmann,
1843) |
Himalayan Blackvein |
|
10. |
Colias erate (Esper, 1805) |
Pale Clouded Yellow |
|
11. |
Colias fieldii Ménétriés, 1855 |
Dark Clouded Yellow |
|
12. |
Pieris brassicae (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Large Cabbage White |
|
13. |
Pieris canidia (Linnaeus, 1768) |
Indian Cabbage White |
|
14. |
Gonepteryx rhamni Linnaeus, 1758 |
Common Brimstone |
|
15. |
Pontia daplidice (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Bath White |
|
16. |
Belenois aurota (Fabricius,
1793) |
Pioneer |
|
C. |
Family: Lycaenidae |
|
|
17. |
Heliophorus sena (Kollar,
[1844]) |
Sorrel Sapphire |
|
18. |
Spindasis nipalicus (Moore, 1884) |
Silver-grey Silverline |
|
19. |
Rapala selira (Moore, 1874) |
Himalayan Red Flash |
|
20. |
Rapala varuna (Horsfield,
[1829]) |
Indigo Flash |
|
21. |
Rapala manea (Hewitson,
1863) |
Slate Flash |
|
22. |
Aricia agestis (Denis & Schiffermüller,
1775) |
Orange-bordered Argus |
|
23. |
Lycaena phlaeas (Linnaeus, 1761) |
Common Copper |
|
24. |
Lampides boeticus (Linnaeus, 1767) |
Pea Blue |
|
25. |
Chilades pandava (Horsfield,
[1829]) |
Plains Cupid |
|
26. |
Celastrina huegelii (Moore, 1882) |
Large Hedge Blue |
|
27. |
Deudorix epijarbas (Moore, [1858]) |
Cornelian |
|
D. |
Family: Nymphalidae |
|
|
28. |
Vanessa indica Herbst, 1794 |
Red Admiral |
|
29. |
Vanessa cardui Linnaeus, 1758 |
Painted Lady |
|
30. |
Kaniska canace Linnaeus, 1763 |
Blue Admiral |
|
31. |
Aglais caschmirensis
Kollar, 1844 |
Indian Tortoiseshell |
|
32. |
Callerebia annada caeca Moore, 1857 |
Ringed Argus |
|
33. |
Callerebia hybrida Butler, 1880 |
Hybrid Argus |
|
34. |
Callerebia nirmala Moore, 1865 |
Common Argus |
|
35. |
Argynnis hyperbius (Linnaeus, 1763) |
Indian Fritillary |
|
36. |
Ypthima nareda Kollar, 1844 |
Large Three-Ring |
|
37. |
Ypthima nikaea Moore, 1874 |
Moore’s Five-Ring |
|
38. |
Parantica aglea (Stoll, [1782]) |
Glassy Tiger |
|
39. |
Tirumala limniace (Cramer, [1775]) |
Blue Tiger |
|
40. |
Tirumala septentrionis (Butler, 1874) |
Dark Blue Tiger |
|
41. |
Danaus genutia (Cramer, [1779]) |
Striped Tiger |
|
42. |
Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Plain Tiger |
|
43. |
Euploea mulciber (Cramer, [1777]) |
Striped Blue Crow |
|
44. |
Argynnis childreni Gray, 1831 |
Large Silver stripe |
|
45. |
Libythea lepita Moore, [1858] |
Common Beak |
|
46. |
Lasiommata schakra Kollar, 1844 |
Common Wall |
|
47. |
Acraea issoria (Hübner,
[1819]) |
Yellow Coster |
|
48. |
Cyrestis thyodamas Doyère,
[1840] |
Common Map |
|
49. |
Junonia iphita Cramer, 1779 |
Chocolate Pansy |
|
E. |
Family: Hesperiidae |
|
|
50. |
Seseria dohertyi Watson, 1893 |
Himalayan White Flat |
|
51. |
Potanthus dara (Kollar,
[1844]) |
Himalayan Dart |
|
52. |
Celaenorrhinus leucocera (Kollar,
[1844]) |
Common Spotted Flat |
|
53. |
Lobocla liliana Atkinson, 1871 |
Marbled Flat |
|
54. |
Celaenorrhinus dhanada (Moore, [1866]) |
Himalayan Yellow-banded Flat |
|
55. |
Pseudocoladenia dan (Fabricius,
1787) |
Fulvous Pied Flat |
|
56. |
Tagiades menaka Moore, 1865 |
Spotted Snow Flat |
|
57. |
Celaenorrhinus munda Moore, 1884 |
Himalayan Spotted Flat |
|
58. |
Aeromachus stigmata Moore, 1878 |
Veined Scrub Hopper |
|
59. |
Notocrypta feisthamelii Boisduval,
1832 |
Spotted Demon |
|
60. |
Pedesta masuriensis Moore, 1878 |
Mussoorie Bush Bob |
|
61. |
Polytremis discreta (Elwes &
Edwards, 1897) |
Himalayan Swift |
|
62. |
Parnara sp. |
Swift sp. |
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